If you’re like many business owners, you know you need to embrace social media but you may not be sure entirely how to make it worth your time. Facebook is no exception! Just because you have a Facebook page for your business or service doesn’t mean you’re engaging your audience and making the most of the medium.

Here’s 3 steps to help you make the most of your Facebook timeline!

Step One: Who sees that again?

Remember, you have a variety of traffic who can view your Facebook page. You may not want every group to see every item that you post. Spend some time deciding which groups you would like to display your content to. You can use the Facebook categories to tweak what content shows up to various people. For instance, you may want to limit your truly personal messages to close friends while everyone can see business related posts. Some common ways to organize your information are shown below:

Public: Posts you wish to reach the general public with

Friends (and friends of anyone Tagged): Close friends and colleagues

Custom: Create and use Lists for people such as Customers, Clients, Family, Business Peers, Competitors, Game buddies

Only Me: Confidential information, but remember, Facebook should never be treated as secure, even if you have gone to your Account Settings, clicked on the Security link in the left-hand sidebar and changed your browser view to the “https” version of Facebook.

Step Two: Maximize the visual options!

A huge part of presenting yourself and your business falls back to branding. Your Facebook page is no exception! You want to make sure that you take the time to present and position yourself and your business as clearly and attractively as you can. This isn’t just all about aesthetics but rather how you:

Help people identify with you

Create goodwill and warm feelings

Make people feel engaged in your world

Make people feel you are – or they would like you to be – engaged in theirs

Show them clearly “who you and your business are”

Let them know what you’re all about – and why they should care

Being interesting; or even fun, if “fun” is appropriate

Use your profile photo and your cover photo to start this process.

Your profile photo: This can be either a logo or a good, professional-looking headshot that captures your personality. Depending on your audience, you may want to shoot for fun and friendly or more serious and dynamic. In general, a direct gaze that pulls off friendly without being too effusive seems to work best!

Your Cover Photo: You want to make sure that this photo really supports the message you are wanting to project. Again, your audience and message should be the motivation behind whatever cover photo you choose. Fluffy farm animals probably isn’t the way to go if you’re targeting high-level executives! Remember, you can’t use text on cover photos so any marketing or calls to action won’t be possible here.

Step Three: Engage your audience and create incentives!

The first part of this process is to listen to your followers and answer them! Take the time to “like” any comments – this shows you’ve read the comment and makes an effort to connect with the reader. Take the time to respond to comments, especially if they’re particularly useful or thoughtful. Thank them for sharing the info and let them know you appreciate it. Adding their first name to your response goes a long way in connecting with people. It makes them feel like you know who they are and that you care!

Another great way to engage your audience is to use interactive tools such as polls, contests and sweepstakes.

Polls allow you to engage your audience and give them a quick way to interact with your page. It also gives you valuable information about what your audience wants.

Contents and sweepstakes provide another way to engage viewers and can get a great response from your audience. Be sure that you follow the rules and only use Facebook approved apps. You can find the details here: Promotions Guidelines

So, take some time this week to assess your Facebook page to make sure you’re making the most of this social media outlet.

Michele Scismis a decisive, driven and committed entrepreneur who helps successful business owners create passive income streams so they can stop working so hard and start enjoying the benefits of entrepreneurship.

Michele’s business expertise has been highlighted recently on NBC, CBS, Fox, Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com. She is an international speaker, best-selling author and the Founder of Decisive Minds.

She is a serial entrepreneur who knows how it feels to fail miserably at business, at one time the bank actually called demanding their $1.5 million back, and also knows how it feels to sign the contract to sell your company for $9 million dollars. For business building tips visit http://DecisiveMinds.com